Lisa Alther
The Friends of the Washington County Public Library presents writers Lisa Alther and her brother John Shelton Reed, Kingsport natives, in an afternoon event Sunday, April 24, at 3 p.m. at the Abingdon, Virginia, library.
Alther’s new comical novel, “Swan Song,” is set on a cruise ship and is about a woman doctor in charge of the ship’s clinic, who is recovering from the loss of a longtime companion who was a much-admired writer.
Alther is the author of 12 books over the years since she published the novel “Kinflicks” in 1975 about growing up in Kingsport in the 1950s. Of regional historical interest are “Kinfolks” about her family’s Melungeon ties, “Blood Feud” about the Hatfield-McCoy feud, and “Washed in the Blood,” a historical novel about the earliest settlements in the southern states in the 16th century.
John Shelton Reed’s “Barbecue” celebrates a southern culinary tradition forged in coals and smoke. In a lively and amusing style, Reed traces the history of southern barbecue from its roots in the 16th-century Caribbean, showing how this technique of cooking meat established itself in the coastal South and spread inland from there. He discusses how choices of meat, sauce and cooking methods came to vary from one place to another, reflecting local environments, farming practices and history.
Reed is a retired sociology professor from the University of North Carolina. He has published or edited 23 books, most of them dealing with the contemporary American South. He was the founder of the Center for the Study of the American South and the quarterly journal, “Southern Cultures.”
There will be book sales and signings, as well as a reception after the event. For more information, contact the library at 276-676-6390.
